The squads thing seems to be severely under documented. This is one of the few features of this new rendition of COD that I enjoy. The problem is that there are so many unanswered questions regarding your AI squad mates and building a bad ass squad. If any one has any answers please feel free to share.

1) Does leveling up actually help your AI squad mates.. ie. do they become more proficient as you level up characters. Scenario, which squad is better, a squad with one level 20 and the other members as 1's or a squad full of level 4 members?

2) What happens to AI squad member XP? I have yet to see an AI teammate level up regardless of how any squad type games I play and how much XP they gain. For example my squad is 48 and 7 right now, however, I have one squad member that I have not played (the 100 squad point unlock guy) that is still a level 1 even though after each match he gains XP.

3) Also if AI team mates do gain proficiency is it on a per game type basis? I ask as all of my AI guys less the aforementioned expensive unlock guy are level 10 or higher. However, I have noticed that when I play certain game modes their in game levels fluctuate. For example I was playing the new Search and Destroy and noticed in game (select button I believe) their levels (far left of their individual score) were all 1'sand 2's, while in domination in game AI XP levels are equal to their normal level.

4) Do AI players gain weapons proficiency based upon how long that weapon is equipped or how much experience they have with it (kills etc.) or can just take a sniper character and just throw a shotgun in his hands and he is equally as good?

5) I am looking for some factual basis to how leveling up affects the lethality/effectiveness of your AI guys.

6) Also a quick *****, do you want to know the definition of piss poor design and lack of foresight? Try playing squad in a party with another human and going between the different game modes. Instead of them staying in your game, you have to switch games and then send a game invite each time you try a different game mode--dumb....That aside any answers to the other 5 would be appreciated.

I really want to know this as well. I have an all 12 and up team and I went up against a team that was all below 10. I recently leveled a member to 20 in hopes that it would bump his skill level. I went into a quick match just to find that he's playing worse than ever with a 2k/13d end game score. I noticed that if you go into a custom solo match where you can tweak the friendly and enemy teams skill levels, the bots actual level in game changes to reflect that (ex. recruits 1-10, regular 11 - 40, hardened 41-59, veteran 60). It would make a lot of sense if the squad AI skill levels were consistant and resembled something closer to what I mentioned above.

On the note of basing AI skill in Squad Assault on how the local play bots levels reflect their assigned difficulty, there's a huge gap between the recruit and hardened skill levels. I think that the levels for increasing Squad skills should look a lot more like... recruit 1-9, regular 10-29, hardened 30-59, veteran 60. Ohhhh, and also while we're talking AI, on multiple occasions I have been shot through a wall or been spotted while being completely hidden by foliage and killed. If a human can't see you without the aid of a motion sensor or oracle then a bot shouldn't either. I know that they weren't lucky shots because in the killcam replay the bot clearly aimed directly at me(the spot at the wall in front of me) and hit me with precision. That is a flaw in the AI logic and should be fixed asap.

I am not sure anymore how this works. I thought it best to level up all my mbrs only to find out it was a waste of time. I played four matches last night against a Lvl 9 with all his/her squad at Lvl 1, myself Lvl 45 and all squad above 25. I was beat horribly in every match, this was not the case 2 weeks ago while I was leveling up the squad, or at least it didn't seem to be. I was 62 W and 12 Losses. How can I go from playing that well to being beat so badly last night? Hmmmmm

I have about 800 squad games under my belt and here is what I know. Your A.I. teammates will play the style you have chosen for them. If you equip them with a sniper, they will camp and snipe, smg, they will rush, etc. When you play a squad match, the member YOU are playing as will rank up only. If you are offline and your squad is challenged, you don't rank up until you get back on and play again. Go to squad hq, and look at the bottom of the screen and it will show you how much time with extra xp you have. For every time you are challenged offline you get 30 minutes extra xp until you reach 2 hours max. If you notice when you play sometimes you get 110 points per kill in tdm, 55 in dom, etc., that is where your extra xp comes from. Normally it is 100 in tdm and 50 in dom. When your bonus xp time is up, it will revert back to normal. As far as squad member levels effecting their quality of play, I have noticed that it doesn't matter what level they are as long as they are customized properly, however in order to do that, you are going to have to spend more squad points obviously, so in order to do that I would suggest purchasing their perks over weapons and attachments. Lastly, pay attention to how your squad plays in certain modes and maps as to what you have them equipped with. When you find the map or mode they do well on, use that as your home base or mode as they will defend you better when offline. Don't pick smg or shotgun classes for all of them unless you have Strikezone or another small map as your base. I suggest 1 or 2 smg's and the rest assault rifles as that is basically what the game demands. Hope this helps. Merry Christmas.

Perhaps slightly off topic...but how does someone I don't know and is not on my friend's list get in and play my Squad (when I'm) offline? I know my friends can but I didn't think others could or even should be able to. Thank you.

It's all random. You can challenge your friends and vice versa from the squad assault menu. But just like how when you play squad assault and it puts you against a random person's squad, It works the same for others and is uncontrollable who your enemy is. Basically other people play squad assault, they find match, and the game finds another squad to put you against. You cannot keep people from playing against you when you are offline. If you want to lower your chances of a stranger challenging you, pick a home base that nobody will want to play, such as siege or chasm. LOL. A lot of times I see those 2 and back out because I am not in the mood for a slow game. Hope this helps.

second, ive heard that the more expensive the soldier is, the better he is at squads when being a bot. For example, the 500SP soldier will have more kills and better quality of play than all the other soldiers.

I only have 6 soldiers unlocked at the moment, so I can't say for the 200, 300, 400, and 500 squad point soldiers, but with all of mine so far, as previously said, it all depends on the loadout you have for each soldier... Meaning which Class set has a star next to it when in create a soldier. The class set that has the star is the default loadout when you play with your squad, or if you're offline and a random person challenges your squad. Hope this helps.

Make sure to check that the AI Loadout selection is on the class set that you WANT them to start out with. I have seen sometimes a loadout for one of my soldiers is different from the one I selected. I.E., one soldier I had selected an SMG as a default, but when the game started, he had a sniper rifle. So make sure all the classes are set up for how you would play in online multiplayer. It is the luck of the draw if you will win in Squad assault. If you're more cautious on Strikezone, you may win in by a big margin. If you're cautious when playing on Flooded, Stonehaven, or even Freight, you may not win.

Ok thank you very much for answering. Please let me know if you ever unlock another soldier (from 200SP and over) and tell me if there is any difference with the others. I will do the same if i unlock it myself.

Like all Cod games, the entire game is under-documented. I guess developers don't feel obligated to include comprehensive instruction manuals in their games anymore. Personally, I think this is despicable considering the price of a brand new game. Another example is eSports/Clan vs. Clan implementation. You will not learn anything about the details of eSports unless you dig for it on the net.

As far as unlocking/leveling up squadmembers, I've unlocked the 200 & 300 point squad members and the only difference whatsoever is the skill that you choose for them (which basically just assigns your initial perks and weapons that are unlocked from the start). Leveling them up is all about prestiging and doesn't seem to come into play at all when you play squad wars.